Blog relating to the American Presidency, specific American Presidents, and First Ladies. Posts by online college instructor Jennie Weber with additional posts by site founder Dr. Michael Lorenzen and Elementaryhistoryteacher.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Catching up CSPAN

Tomorrow is Mary Lincoln, as I realize many of you are interested in her, so make sure to tune in on CSPAN. I thought I'd catch up here. I watched the two episodes that I haven't posted on yet the Polk/Taylor/Fillmore and then Pierce/Buchanan.

Sarah Polk
You all know I love Sarah. I did get a FB question on this episode, so I was very happy! I overall liked how they talked about her, but I am left wondering again why they choose who they did. It seems that their first, second, third, fourth, etc. choices turned them down and so they picked whoever would say yes. The law guy they had on Polk just left me wondering. I did enjoy seeing the two sparring over the Mexican War! I also really enjoyed the information on her frugality. The information on her dresses was a lot of fun! I have been to Columbia, TN, to see the Polk Museum, so I was glad to see that on here.

Margaret Taylor
There wasn't much here, as expected, they mentioned what I knew, that she was well educated, just didn't take part in much of politics. I was rather annoyed they never even named her daughter, Betty Bliss Taylor, who did her entertaining. They mentioned a daughter, but that was it. They talked about Varina Davis instead! Granted, neat link, but still...let's talk about Betty!

Abigail Fillmore
I actually learned a lot here and really enjoyed learning about how they really rose through the ranks. I liked how they talked about how they changed religions as they "moved" up. Really interesting! Their education was very broad and Abigail was very interested in it, they really talked about that, which was great.

Jane Pierce
So Ann Covell wrote a book on Jane Pierce (which seriously, I didn't realize anyone cared enough), but she does NOT come across well on TV. I could barely make it through this episode and she was most of the reason. This was mostly about all that was wrong with her and how depressed she was. They also barely mentioned the alcoholism. This could have SO been shorter (and so given more time to Sarah Polk by putting say Abigail Fillmore here....Sarah deserved her own episode, just saying!).

Harriet Lane
So Ann Covell stuck around, but we also got Feather Schwartz Foster, who was much less aggravating. I got another FB question up here! They mostly talked about her charm, youth, and fun in the White House. Foster actually seemed to think Buchanan was good at some things, which surprised me as Buchanan usually is seen as a complete failure, but this was definitely a different side, really just looking at entertaining, which Harriet really kept going for him. They didn't mention the rumors of being gay, although they talked about his broken romance.